Genentech Inc, Fill and Finish Facility, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA

Genentech Inc is one of the leading biotechnology corporations in the US, founded in 1976 with its HQ in San Francisco Bay in South San Francisco, California. The company is regarded by many as one of the pioneers of the biotech industry. Genentech now has facilities all around the world and employs more than 10,000 personnel.

The majority shareholder of Genentech Inc is the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann La Roche. The company has many products in the commercial market in most spheres of treatment, including Activase/Cathflo, Nutropin, Pulmozyme, Rituxan, Herceptin, TNKase, Xolair, Raptiva, Avastin, Tarceva and Lucentis. Many of the products treat cancer, arthritis or asthma and others promote tissue growth and repair for patients suffering from heart, lung or other ailments.

Genentech has the distinction as a company of being consistently voted by various business magazines as the best employer and most admired biotech company. It was named Top Employer by Science Magazine on 15 October 2007, where it has been recognised for the past six years. In October 2007 Genentech was also named the Most Admired Biotech Company.

NEW FACILITY

In 2006 Genentech obtained a new 75-acre site just 20 miles west of Portland in Hillsboro, Oregon. The intention was the construction of a new state-of-the-art $250m fill and finish facility, to occupy 25 acres, for the production of some of the newer drugs in the development pipeline.

The facility broke ground in December 2006, completion of construction is expected in 2008 and the plant is expected to be in operation in 2010 following licensing and validation. There are expected to be 200–250 employees initially at the plant and 300 employees by 2015. Construction of the facility will employ 960 full- and part-time workers, and across the Oregon economy will support 2,180 full- and part-time jobs.

The fill and finish facility will also be partnered by a new west coast warehouse and distribution centre. The existing fill and finish facility is in California and is being relocated. The fill and finish facility will receive bulk frozen product shipped from other Genentech plants in California, at Vacaville and Oceanside, which will then be thawed, prepared with the addition of diluents or buffers, and filled into sterile vials or syringes before being packed and shipped.

INCENTIVES

The company received a number of incentives for building the plant in Oregon on a state and county level. Washington County waived millions in property taxes by negotiating a 15-year tax incentive agreement under the state's Strategic Investment Program.

Under this special deal, Genentech will pay the full property taxes on the first $25m of investment in land, building and equipment, but then anything up to a maximum of $250m will be exempt from taxation.

Genentech also will pay an annual community service fee of $500,000, as well as an additional fee for each year of the 15-year agreement.

The state of Oregon has also agreed to invest around $5m for worker training and infrastructure improvements. The Governor's Strategic Reserve Fund has provided $2m and this makes the total state investment in the project $4.8m.

CONTRACTORS

Group Mackenzie is providing site development services as part of the design build team for the new facility. Initially, Group Mackenzie prepared alternative conceptual site plans for the 12-acre Phase 1 project.

Later in the project Group Mackenzie, in collaboration with Flad and Associates, prepared the final site plans and engineering plans and obtained approval from the city to build. Group Mackenzie provides civil engineering, landscape architecture design and construction documents for the project.

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